Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Favorite Things’ Category

A Different Time and World

Posted in Biographical, Favorite Things, Influences, tagged , , , , , on November 18, 2009| 2 Comments »

I wrote the other day about doing some genealogy about my great-grandfather, Gilbert Perry, and how interesting it has been in reconnecting with an ancestor about who I knew so little about.  One of the great pleasures has been reading the old newspapers from the late 1800’s that are available online via  the Northern New York Library System.  I am constantly fascinated in browsing the ads and notices of the times, seeing how day to day life changed and evolved.

This ad for a balloon ascension with Professor Squire, a la The Wizard of Oz, at the Franklin County Fair in Malone, NY appeared in the September 2, 1872 edition of the Malone Palladium.  It was on the front page alongside accounts from the Republican convention of that year where Ulysses S. Grant was nominated for the presidency as well as death notices, ads for pianos (they were selling Steinways up there!) and dry goods.  Ads looking for tin peddlers, a furniture dealer selling metal burial caskets, a lumber dealer, carriage painters and a mail order ad for a tea dealer on Wall Street in NYC.  There was a list of  rules of behavior that would be enforced at the Fair.  No drinking or betting on the trotters.

It was all pretty interesting, a glimpse into that time, but the part that caught my eye was near the top of the page, just under the death notices.  It was a Notice of Liberation where my great-great grandfather, Francis Perry, was giving Gilbert Perry, my great-grandfather, the remainder of his minority, giving him freedom from furhter financial obligations to his father.  Gilbert was free to transact business as he saw fit.

It was at this point that Gilbert formed his first crew and headed into the North woods with his first contract to deliver logs.  He was just 18 years old.  He continued to be a logger for the next 60 years, only stopping a few years before his death at age 81.  My Aunt Norma has recollections of visiting his farm in St. Regis Falls when she was small girl in the early 1930’s.  She said there were big log sleds scattered all around, the type pulled by teams of horses.  He was throwback even then to an earlier time before big tractors and chainsaws.

So in this little piece in this little newspaper from the north I see the beginning of my great-grandfather’s world, one that led to my grandmother’s much different world and to my father’s even more different world to my world which would probably seem incomprehensible to a man so at home in the woods.  Or maybe not…

Read Full Post »

Adirondack Memories

Posted in Biographical, Favorite Things, Personal Mythology, tagged , , , on November 16, 2009| 8 Comments »

Logging near Forestport, NYThis is a scene from the Adirondack Mountains of New York near the town of Forestport, taken in the 1890’s.   There’s a possibility this is one of my great-grandfather’s crews.  I don’t really know.  Never knew much about  the man as I was growing up, didn’t even know his full name.  My family had little link to the past, few photos and very little oral history.  So little was known of our ancestors and their lives. Thanks to the access to old records and newspapers that is now available via the internet I have been able to find out much that would have been otherwise lost to our family.

For example, the great-grandfather I mentioned above was known to have ran a lumber camp in the Adirondacks, supposedly in the north near St. Regis Falls, where my father’s mother ( who died in 1979) was born and raised.  That was about the extent of our knowledge of the man.  I knew his last name was Perry and he ran a lumber camp.

A couple of years back, I did a quick Google search with what little info I had and much to my surprise an entry appeared.  There was a Gilbert Perry listed in a book from 1895 profiling the citizens of Oneida County, NY, in the southern part of the Adirondacks.  That didn’t seem to jive with what I knew but when I read the article it stated he was from St. Regis Falls and maintained a farm there as well.  His children were listed and I recognized one name as being a sister of my grandmother, who was not listed as she wasn’t yet born.

It was a thrill to finally find something on an ancestor, something that gave their life form.  I learned that he was a hard-working, ambitious entrepreneur who ran a number of lumbering enterprises as well as a couple of retail stores and his farms.  He was considered one of the pioneers of Adirondack logging, having several camps and crews of men numbering in the hundreds along with 50 or more teams of horses.  At the time, he was signed to bring in the largest contract of lumber in the Adirondacks.

After that I started doing more research and a whole new world  opened up to me when I came across the digitized newspapers from that time and region.  Local newspapers at that time were a true mirror of the area and people they covered, giving many details on their everyday lives and their travels.  I was able to piece together a full picture of the life my grandmother’s family lived in St. Regis Falls and Forestport.  I was even able to come across a full account of my grandmother’s wedding to my grandfather, something my dad and his siblings had never heard or seen.  It gave my memories of my grandmother a new depth.

I was even able to find numerous mentions of his lumber camps, including an account of a normal day in the camp, in a number of books outlining the history of the Adirondacks along with many stories of the men who worked for him.  One was a character named Atwell Martin, called the Hermit of North Creek, who is recalled in many stories and tall tales, including one where Paul Bunyan, having heard the tales of Martin’s exploits, traveled east to visit him.  They got along famously at first but ultimately ended up in a fight where trees were upended and used as clubs and the great Paul Bunyan ends up slain.  His body was buried in the headwaters of the Black River, the dam at North Lake.

I am still doing research but it’s an interesting and different world I keep uncovering, filled with great exploits and hard lives in a harsh environment.  It’s just been a thrill to find a link to a past of some sort…

Read Full Post »

Mingus Eyes

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, Painting, Video, tagged on November 15, 2009| Leave a Comment »

GC Myers 2002Sometimes, at this point in my year, I spend a considerable amount of my time revisiting past work, going through old image files or leafing through older work that I still have in my possession.  It’s kind of a reminder of how my mind has been sparked in the past and I’m always looking for a revival of that spark, especially at the end of a period of time when I have been working a lot and have fallen into what I feel is a too predictable pattern with my painting.

I tend to focus on the odd little pieces when I’m doing this.  Pieces with figures in them, odd compositions, odd shapes- things of that nature.  I came across this little triptych from 2002 and had to linger over for a bit.  I remember it well, the way the surface had a smoothness, almost enamel-like finish and the way the three pieces played off one another.   I never fully understood the meaning behind this piece but I was always reminded by it of the music of Richard Thompson, a writer of many wonderful distinctive songs, many of them with dark undertones.

So, I’ll keep looking back, hoping for a rekindling of inspiration,  and in the meantime, here’s some Richard Thompson with Mingus Eyes…

Read Full Post »

The Boys

Posted in Favorite Things, Neat Stuff, tagged , on November 13, 2009| 5 Comments »

Raccoon and the BoysI came across a group of photos from a few years back that brought back very bittersweet memories.  The photos were of a pair of feral cats that took up residence around our place along with a three legged raccoon that was in the vicinity for a short time.  The cats tolerated the raccoon’s presence and they never seemed too upset when he helped himself to the food we put out for them.

The cats were an interesting pair.  We called the tiger one Partner and the other Ben although we always called him simply Black & White.  Partner and Ben were the Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin characters from the movie  Paint Your Wagon.  The two cats had started coming to our place in the woods a few years before and came separately.  Ben was super skittish and would never let you get close enough to touch him but hung around and came to understand when there was food available.  Partner was more affable and approachable but he only came once in a great while, at which point ben would attack him and chase him away, off into the woods.

This went on for a year or so and we seldom saw Partner then one year, as a very bitter winter began to close in Partner came and made a stand.  Instead of running away he held his ground against  Ben.  It was horrible.  For a day or so, they were in what seemed to be non-stop combat outside our house.  Under our house.  Maybe on our house, I don’t know.  There was thumping and screeching  and all sorts of awful noise.  We would try to intervene but they would run out of sight and pause for the time we out there then resume immediately after we went back inside.

The BoysThe next morning when I put out some food for them, they both emerged.  They were a mess with bloody cuts and scrapes on both.  Yet they were together now with not a hint of malice between them.  From that time on they were inseparable.  They spent that very cold winter sleeping together  in a makeshift box I had built for them, one on top of the other.  When they would walk through the yard or up our walkway, they would walk in step and would shove their shoulders together as though they were joined at the shoulder.  As spring and summer came, they would lazily sleep on our walkway, often spooning as they laid together with their legs wrapped around each other or would sleep facing one another, their paws lightly touching.  When our female cat, Tinker, was outside, Partner would make attempts to be friendly but Ben wanted no part of her and, in an obviously jealous act,  would aggressively push himself between the two.  It was an amazing transformation from their previous animosity to this sweet friendship.

It was short lived however as they both passed away later that next winter, both disappearing with days of one another, obviously very ill.  We’ve always regretted not being able to do more for them but through this time they never let us get too close to them, always being wary of any attempts to corral them.  So when I see these photos I am torn between the sheer sadness of their hard fought existence and the absolute joy and comfort they had found in their love for one another.  A rare thing indeed…

Racoon and the Boys II

Read Full Post »

The Weight

Posted in Favorite Things, Video, tagged , , on November 11, 2009| 2 Comments »

GC Myers The ListeningWell, I’m still on the road but I should be home and back in the studio tomorrow morning which is always a relief.  Back to the routine that I really like and can thrive in.

As I drive I listen to my iPod, usually just leaving it on shuffle so that anything can pop up.  Sometimes things come on that I haven’t heard in a while and it’s always a pleasant surprise.

Here’s one that always makes me wish I could sing.  It’s from Martin Scorsese’s The Last Waltz which is a documenting of The Band‘s last concert.  It’s a great film and this is a great version of The Weight with a lot of help from the Staple Singers.

Enjoy!

Read Full Post »

On the Ning Nang Nong

Posted in Favorite Things, Neat Stuff, Painting, tagged on November 9, 2009| Leave a Comment »

The Incantation GC Myers 1994 I am traveling today so I thought I ‘d just show another little ditty from Spike Milligan.  The wordplay here always makes me smile.  Enjoy!

On the Ning Nang Nong


On the Ning Nang Nong

Where the Cows go Bong!

and the monkeys all say BOO!

There’s a Nong Nang Ning

Where the trees go Ping!

And the tea pots jibber jabber joo.

On the Nong Ning Nang

All the mice go Clang

And you just can’t catch ’em when they do!

So its Ning Nang Nong

Cows go Bong!

Nong Nang Ning

Trees go ping

Nong Ning Nang

The mice go Clang

What a noisy place to belong

is the Ning Nang Ning Nang Nong!!

——-Spike Milligan

The piece at the top is a little thing I did back when I was just starting to paint.  I call it The Incantation.

Read Full Post »

Ready For My Close-up, Mr. DeMille…

Posted in Favorite Things, Neat Stuff, tagged on November 8, 2009| 1 Comment »

CloseupI’ve been enjoying catching some shots of the wildlife around here with a scout camera I recently acquired. In an earlier post, I showed a few shots of a large bobcat that has been haunting the property as of late.  Earlier this week, I was sitting at my computer and on two consecutive days watched him cross a small earthen bridge into the corner of my studio’s yard and walk around the edge until he popped into the woods and continued past the back of my studio, about 50 feet away.  It was about the same time each day and he seemed to be without a care , walking slowly and sniffing around.  An impressive sight.

Bobcat CloseupOf course, from these two sightings I was only able to catch one shot of him on the scout camera and it was only of its ears, which are quite striking,  I was hoping for a shot where I could see his face but being wild animals, these guys are not always open to direction.

Unlike the deer at the top.  I have a number of shots of the deer that live here poking their nose at the lens.  The deer are always milling about the yard and when they see something new, such as a metal cased camera strapped to a tree, it piques their curiosity.  The herd here is, of course, comprised of all does except for a fawn who is showing signs of emerging antler nubs.

I have caught a couple shots of a young buck with a small rack, maybe 6 points, who may very well be one of the fawns I’ve seen in past years.  The bucks always seem to be solitary at this time of the year and much less visible, many becoming nocturnal as the hunting season comes around.  There are fewer and fewer hunters in these parts, so our herd stays pretty constant and has learned to stay near our place particularly during hunting season.

Night FoxI’ve also caught a number of shots of a fox at night.  He’s a gray fox, I believe, a bit taller than the red.  The gray is more cat-like than the red and had the ability to climb trees.  They’re a great looking animal.  I used to have one that would often pass my window at my old studio, always around the same time.  He would move by at a workmanlike pace, always purposefully moving along the same path.

It’s interesting to see these creatures at close range and see how they live their lives just outside our sight.  For the most part…

Read Full Post »

De Chirico

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, Painting, Technique/History, tagged , on November 6, 2009| Leave a Comment »

de chirico_mysteryA turning point for me when I was first stumbling around with my own painting was when I encountered the work of Giorgio de Chirico, an Italian painter of darkly toned metaphorical works.  He lived from 1888 until 1978 but was primarily known for his early work from 1909-1919 which is called his Metaphysical Period.  Metaphysics is  devoted to the exploration of what is behind visible reality without relying on measurable data.  Very mystical.  De Chirico’s work after 1919 became more realistic and less appreciated.  It is the work from this earlier period that defines him.

I was immediately drawn to the work.  It was full of high contrast, with sharp light and dark.  The colors were bold, bright and vibrant, yet there was darknessde-chirico-the-great-tower implied in them.  The compositions were full of interesting juxtapositions of forms and perspectives.  It was a visual feast for me.

At that time in my own painting, I was still painting in a fairly traditional manner, especially with watercolors.  That is to say that I was achieving light through the transparency  of my paint, letting the underlying paper show through.  It was pretty clean which was fine.  But it wasn’t what I was looking for in my work.

Seeing de Chirico’s paintings made me realize what I wanted.  It was that underlying darkness that his work possessed.  Almost a grittiness.  I immediately began to experiment with different methods that would introduce a base of darkness that the light and color could play off.  My work began to change in short order and strides forward came much quicker as a result of simply sensing  something in de Chirico’s work that wasn’t there in my own.

Perhaps that is what is meant by metaphysical…

de-chirico


Read Full Post »

NEWSFLASH: GODZILLA FLATTENS PHILLY!

Posted in Current Events, Favorite Things, Neat Stuff, tagged , , , on November 5, 2009| 4 Comments »

hideki matsuiThe World Series ended last night with a bang as an aging Hideki Matsui (AKA Godzilla) single-handedly slugged his New York Yankees over the Philadelphia Phillies.  He drove in 6 runs with 3 hits including a soaring home run off longtime Yankee nemesis Pedro Martinez on the way to a 7-3 victory.  It was the 27th championship in the storied history of the team.

It was a really good Series between arguably the two best teams in baseball.  The Phillies, last year’s reigning champs, were a formidable opponent and a very likable group that played the game with full effort.  They could have easily won any of these games.  However, the  Yankees were just a step ahead this year.

To a baseball fan, the game becomes part of your daily ritual.  It’s a long season that spans all four  seasons, running from  spring training that starts in the last weeks of winter to the Fall Classic, as the Series is called.  The Yankees played 177 regular season games not to mention all the spring training games.  It is, as they say, a marathon sport based on finding the rhythm of a team and trying to maintain it through the ups, downs and grind of this long year.  It very much mimics day to day life.

So, you follow your team and suffer through the lows and relish the highs.  Being a Yankee fan has had a lot of highs, certainly.  But the heightened expectations create deep lows when your team fails to follow through on the promise of their potential.  And this year’s team was promising a lot.  It was a team that was very easy to like in many ways.  I’ve heard fans of other teams say that it tore them up because this team was so hard to dislike.  They played hard all the time, played with joy and never seemed to be just putting in the time when they were on the field which means a lot to the day to day fans.  When you’re committed as a fan you want to know that your players are as invested emotionally as you in the season.

That’s why it’s been a pleasure following these Yankees over the last 15 years or so.  I remember reading about Joe Dimaggio saying that he played hard every day out of respect for the fans, that he knew what a big deal it was for many of them to make the trip, many from long distances, just to see the game on that particular day.  It might be the only time they’ll ever see you in person and they deserved to see you try to do your best.  I’ve watched Derek Jeter day in and day out for since 1996 and he has never made me feel as though his full attention was anywhere other than where he was at that moment on the field.  Full effort all the time.  Oh, he’s failed.  Much more than he’s succeeded.  That’s the nature of baseball.  But his effort has never lagged.

And that’s what carries the fans through the lows.  That feeling that though they couldn’t go all the way, they gave it all they had.  It’s a good life lesson.

And when they give all and win, it’s even sweeter.

Now I have a baseball void for the next few months.  Can’t wait for spring training…

Read Full Post »

Imagined Memory

Posted in Favorite Things, Influences, tagged , , on November 4, 2009| 2 Comments »

mark twain on steps at quarry farmWhen I was younger I could remember anything, whether it happened or not.

– Mark Twain


I sometimes go to quote pages on the net just to read Mark Twain quotes when I need a laugh.  Always been a big fan of his work and his humor.  It was pretty easy because he has a large presence in the area in which I live.  Twain spent many summers here after marrying Olivia Langdon, from a well-respected Elmira family and was buried here after his death in 1910.  The Twains divided their year between their home in Hartford, Connecticut and their summer home here at Quarry Farm, which sat on the side of a hill overlooking the valley in which the city sits.

quarry farm studyIn his study at Quarry Farm, which has been moved to the campus of Elmira College, Twain spent his summer days writing many of his classics.  The family of my grandfather lived at the very base of the hill on which Quarry Farm is located and as a kid I wondered if my grandfather ever saw Twain as he ambled down the hill into the city.  My grandfather at that time was a stagehand at the Majestic Theatre, one of the numerous theaters that once graced Elmira and Twain was a frequent guest to establishments in that vicinity.  Perhaps they nodded hellos on the street.  I could certainly imagine it, whether it happened or not, as Twain says above.

I know that’s a small and inconsequential bond, but it brought the person much closer to a reality when I was younger, made his words seem that much closer to my own existence rather than words in an old library book.  I am gratified that this vague connection is with someone whose words and humor still resonate with people today.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »